What once seemed unthinkable — strikes on nuclear facilities and other hazardous sites — has now become reality,” said Oleh Solonenko, head of a radiation safety shift at Chernobyl, which Ukrainians transliterate as Chornobyl.

The Chernobyl disaster remains the world’s worst nuclear accident, displacing hundreds of thousands and reshaping global safety standards decades later.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that drone impacts have degraded the Chernobyl steel protective structure so it no longer blocks radiation, sparking fears of a second Chernobyl

The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl continues to haunt Ukraine, heightened by attacks hitting the country's nuclear plants.

The example that Chernobyl has provided of how the landscape, water dynamics and human behaviour affect radiation risk will be important when dealing with future disasters. Scientists never stop studying it, because radioactive isotopes can move in surprising new ways.

Efrem Lukatsky, a Kyiv-based photographer for The Associated Press, was living in the city on April 26, 1986, when the explosion and fire struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about a two-hour drive away.